Manufacture of strip material suitable for the blades of turbines, turbo-pumps, and the like.



S. Z. DB FERRANTI.

MANUFACTURE OF STRIP MATERIAL SUITABLE FOR THE BLADES 0F TURBINES, TURBO-PUMPS,

I AND THE LIKE.

APPLICATION FILED FEB. 18, 1907.

- 960,161 Patented May 31, 1910.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 1,

Attfi't. [Ill/enter.

I .1. I lg Za/IEMW A ttyfs'.

s. 2. DE FERRANTI. MANUFACTURE OF STRIP MATERIAL SUITABLE FOR THE BLADES 0F TURBINES, TURBO-PUMPS,

AND THE LIKE.

APPLICATION FILED FEB. 18, 1907.

Patented May 31*, 1910.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

fnventar Attas't.

S. Z. DE PERRANTI. MANUFAUTURE OF STRIP MATERIAL SUITABLE FOR. THE BLADES 0F TURBINES, TURBO-PUMPS,

' AND THE LIKE.

APPLICATION FILED TEE. 1B, 1907.

960,161 Patented May 31, 1910.

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dk-AI '29 as Fig. 8.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

snsesrmn zram on museum, or enmnnaronn Barnes, NEAR snnrrmnn',

V ENGLAND.

MANUFACTURE OF STRIP MATERIAL SUITABLE FOR THE BLADES OF TURBINES,

TURBO-PUMPS, AND THE LIKE.

Specification of Letters ratent.

Patented May 31, 1910.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, SEBASTIAN 'ZIANI on Fnnnan'rr, engineer and electrician, subject provements in the methods of manufacture or other polishing step swagin of blades for turbines, turbo-pumps and the like, such methods being also a plicable to the production of metal strips 0 other cross sections.

;The rimary object of the invention is the r uction of blades having one or more of their edges of such an extreme degree-of fineness as to render the processes of drawing, rollingand so forth at present in use.

unsuitable for their manufacture.

My invention however is equally well adapted to the production of blades other than those referred to above as having extremely fine edges, since the smooth and polished surface necessary to minimize frictional losses, whether superficial or produced by eddies, is directly secured by my process during the actual operation of shapmg the blade and thus the subsidiary bufing operations so often re quired in connection with rolling or drawing. recesses in-order to remove the resulting ongitudinal ridges or grooves, are dispensed with- Further, blading produced by rolling or drawing is apt to be .bent, and it then relipires straightening, a process which is lia is to produce distortion of the cross section -this difficulty is also overcome by the use/of. my invention.

My invention consists essentially in a process for the production of turbine blades or metal strip, according to which strip material is subjected, to a series of step-by i. e., squeezing operations to give it its u timatel desired section.

In carrying the invention into effect accordin to one method as applies for example m connection with the production of tur inc blades, the'strip material is first roughed out by any suitable process such as drawing, rolling or otherwise, to a, section approximating to that ultimately desired,

except that it is narrower and thicker. The rou h strip is then annealed and subjected pre erably'cold or nearly so to a series of step-by-step swaging operation between dies working under an extremely high pressure, the dies being relatively long as com pared with the corresponding pressure areas used in rolling or drawing,.so as to rovide a suitable resistance to longitudinal ow of the material. The dies must, further be of special hardness to enable them to stand the severe stresses involved and should be finished with a ver bright surface. The effects 0 the swaging operations gwhich may be considered as a succession o steady squeezes performed ross'ivel step by step along the strip? is t us on t e one hand to cause transverse ow of the strip, thereby producing the fine or sharp edges desired, and on the other hand to condense or com ress the material so as to render it extreme y hard and at the same time to render its surface very smooth and olished. Finally, the finished strip may a e cut into blades of the desired length by any suitable means.

I will now describe by way of examples form of machine adapted to carry my improved process into efi'ect, reference being made for this purpose to the accompanying drawings which form part of the specification and of which- Figure 1 shows an end and Fi 2 a side view partly in section of a suitab e form of Fig. 7 shows adeta'il of the clamping mechamsm as it would appear in Fig. 1 with the feed gear therein s own removed, while .finally Fig. 8 shows a plan of the clampoperatin cam.

Accor. ing to the form of machine shown,-

by we of example, in these drawings, a mam rame, c, is provided 1n WhlCh a rotatable shaft, d, is mounted, this shaft car ryinga flywheel, e, and being driven by any suitab e means such, for instance, as the belt pulleys, 1', shown in Fig. 1.

The upper member, h, of the toggle is pivoted about the axis, 2', the position of which can be adjusted by means of the wedge-piece, k, and hand wheel, m, shown in Fig. 2. Attached to the uppertoggle mem- 15 her, k, is an arm or rocker, n, the free end of which is linked-to a crank, 0, on the shaft, 'd, by the connecting rod, r. Adjustable links, 8, pivotally connected on the one hand to the upper toggle member, 12,, and on the other hand to the die carrier, at, serve to lift the latter element on the up stroke of. the machine while the lower toggle member, u, interposed between the upper member, h, and the top of the die carrier, t, serves to transmit the whole power of the machine to the dies on the down or swaging stroke. Guides, 0, of strong construction and con- ,veniently forming part of the main frame, c, serve to define the motion of the die carrier and thus prevent any possibility of side motion due to unsymmetrical blade sections. The position of certain parts of the mechanism at about the beginning of the down stroke is indicated by chain lines in Figs.

2 and 3.

In order to feed the strip forward-after each swaging action in the direction shown by the arrow in Fig. 4, two pairs of feed rolls are preferably provided disposed one pair on each side of the dies as regards the passage of the strip betwe'en them. The

upper roll, w, of each pair is carried in bearings slidably mounted in a suitable frame or housing, as, and is pressed by-adjustable springs, 2, against the lower roll, 2, with which it is connected by gearing 3. The axle of each lower roll carries a ratchet wheel, 4, while loosely mounted on the end of each of these axles is'an arm, 5, carrying 40 a pawl, 6 engaging with the teeth of the corres onding ratchet wheel, the two arms being inked together by the coupling rod,

' 7, so as to move in unison. The pawl arms,

Y 5, receive .an oscillating motion by means of a link, 8, pivoted to one of them at one end and at, theother end to a pin, slidable for purposes of feed ,adjustment in the groove, 10, formed in the disk, 11', carried,

by the rocking shaft 12, this shaft in turn receiving its motion from the main shaft, 0?, by means of the disk crank, 13, drag link, 14, and lever, 15.' The effect of the continued revolution of the shaft, d, is thus to give an intermittent anduniform feed to the metal strip being operated upon.

Details of the swaging dies are shown on a larger scale in'Fi s. 4 and 5. The upper swaging die, 16, w ich is secured to the die' earner, t, in any suitable manner is made relatively long, so that the resistance to end flow of the material may be very great while it tapers off to some extent at each end, as shown at 17 so as to avoid transverse marking of the blades. The relatively great length of the dies also causes the suc cessive swaging operations to overlap or in other words each particular portion of the length of the strip is acted upon more than once by the dies. When the surfaces of the male and female swaging dies are approximated to their closest extent, they leave a space,'18, (see Fig. 5) exactly representing the section of the blade to be produced. The lower die. block, 19, also serves to co-act with the clamping die, 20, to holdthe strip firmly in place during the swaging operation, the form of the strip, 21, as clamped before swaging being shown in Fig. 6.

The clamping of the strip is performed automatically at the proper moment by I means of the mechanism shown in, Figs. 2 and 7. A Wedge, 22, rests on the clamping die, 20, and is contained withina suitable guide box, 23, soshaped that transverse movement of the wedge operates .the clamping die. This transverse movement is given to the wedge by means of the lever, 24, pivoted at one end to it and fulcrumed about the pin, carried, for example, bythe bracket,

26. On the other end of the leverismounted a screw pin, engaging with t he'groove,

28, in the cam segment, 29, (Fig. 8) which is itself keyed to the rocking shaft 12, mo-

tion of which thusserves. in conjunction with the suitable shaped cam groove, 28, to operate the clamping die intermittently at the proper moment.

The essential operations of the machine.

are thus automatically performed in cycles of the following nature, viz., clamping, swaging, unclamping, and feeding. a

I wish'it to be understood that the machine hereinbeforedescribed is simply to be regarded as one embodimentof a suitable apparatus for carrying my process into ef-- feet and not in any way limiting my-inven- .tion thereto, as it is obvious that various modifications may be made in the details of the machine without departing from the scope of my invention; for example any suitable means other than those which I have illustrated and described maybe adopted for clamping the blade strip, which clamping means maybe situated either in front ofvor behind the dies or both behind and in front thereof, according to the cir cumstances of the case; also any form of press actuated by hydraulic or-other power may. be. adapted to give the intermittent pressure for the swaging operations, the other 0 erations of clamping, unclamping and feed their proper sequence.

Blades thus constructed, if made, for example, of nickel, nickel steel or certain nickel alloys are extremel hard and have the re uired burnished sur ace but they may be ma e of other suitable materials, according to the purpose for which they are to be used, v1z., whether they are to stand the ing being arranged to take place in part and a: comparatively thin part at a high temperatures required in gas turbines, or whether they are for the lower temperatures required in ordinary steam turbine practice.

What I claim as my invention and desire to claim by Letters Patent is l 1 A process of manufacturing strip material, consisting in first producing by any suitable. process strip material of any desired degree of approximation-to the cross Section ultimately desired and subsequently defining the cross section of the strip length by length by a series of longitudinally progressive and overlapping swaging operations acting to cause a t 'ansverse flow of the metal of the strip. 4

2. A process of manufacturing strip material ot-a certain cross section, consisting "in first producing by any suitable process strip material having a comparatively thick given cross ,sject1ou and subsequently defining the cross section of the strip length by length by a' serieso'f longitudinally progressive and overlappmg swagmg operations causing t'ansverse flow of the metal of the stripfrom said. comparatively thick :tosaid comparatively thin part;

3 -A process .of manufacturing turbine blades or blade strip conslstmg 1n first pro- :ducing b .any suitable process strip material -of any lc est-red de ree of {approximation to flow-of the metal of the strip.

4. A process of manufacturing turbine blades or blade st-Iip consisting in first producing by any suitable process stri material portion taperingiaway to a comparatively thin edge portion at a given cross section.

and subsequently by a series of longitudi' nally progressive and overlapping swa-ging operations eausingmetal to flow transversely from said thick portion to said edge portion to extend the same laterally,

(S. A process of manufacturing strip material having a continuous fine edge, consisting in first producing by any suitable process strip material having a comparatively thick part and a comparatively thin part at a given cross section and subsequently by a series of intermittent squeezing operations performed successively step by step along the length of the strip, causing transverse flow of the metal of the strip from said comparatively thick part to said comparatively thin part to form the continuous fine edge. y In testimony whereof, I aflix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

SEBASTIAN ZIANI DE FERRANTI. Witnesses:

ALBERT HALL,

\VILLIAM HERBERT BONNER. 

